As computing systems continue to permeate every aspect of personal and professional life, the need for systems and standards that allow computers to interoperate is significant. Computing devices are commonly found in vehicles, homes, offices, aircraft and the like, yet most of these systems are unable to interoperate with other computing systems to achieve common goals. In a battlefield setting, for example, the benefits of a wide network of interoperating systems are significant, yet very difficult to achieve in practice. Accordingly, the ability for computers to work together to achieve a common purpose or task is frequently impeded by the lack of interoperability standards and systems.
Modern warfare, for example, could benefit greatly from increased interoperability between systems on and above the battlefield. After the end of the Cold War and the advent of the Information Age, modern warfare strategies no longer focus on merely inflicting damage upon a particular enemy, but rather emphasize capabilities to shape behaviors of friends, foes and neutrals in peace, crisis and war settings. Whereas previous strategies generally focused upon countering defined combat threats, modern “effects based” operations provide a broad range of options for responding to a variety of challenges. Effects based operations (EBO) typically rely heavily upon the ability of combatants and strategists to rapidly share information about battlefield conditions, command intent and the like. Lethality, survivability and responsiveness are all improved through rapid information sharing and improved situation awareness, thereby resulting in increased combat power. Similar benefits may be achieved from improving system interoperability in other settings, such as in the home, workplace, community or the like.
Effects-based operations benefit greatly from the ability of geographically separated entities to quickly and efficiently share information, to collaborate on tasks, and to synchronize actions in a network-centric environment. In particular, network-centric (i.e. information based) operations (NCO) benefit from flexible coordination of available resources to form dynamic, ad-hoc networks suitable for a particular mission or operation. It may be desirable, for example, for a soldier operating on a battlefield to obtain real-time photographs or other data from a satellite or aircraft passing overhead during an operation. Such timely and accurate data may greatly reduce the risks and increase the effectiveness of the soldier's operation, yet this information is typically not presently available due to technology limitations.
In practice, truly network-centric operations have been hampered by multiple barriers to system interoperability. Although many electronic systems are already present on the modern battlefield, for example, there are currently no data standards, protocols, data models or ontology for allowing such systems to share information with each other. Moreover, platform limitations in terms of processing power, memory, bandwidth, cost, size, power availability and the like have prohibited adoption of a common data sharing model, since no single standard has emerged that is able to simultaneously exploit the abilities of the most capable systems while retaining compatibility with the least capable systems. As a result, systems are frequently either under-designed (e.g. by placing excessive demands upon low-capability systems) or over-designed (e.g. by failing to exploit available power of high-capability systems).
It is therefore desirable to create a new approach for creating network-centric environments, particularly in the battlefield setting. It is also desirable to create systems and methods for providing interoperability between systems of varying capabilities to establish dynamic, ad-hoc “islands of capability”. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.